spring is sprung

the grass is riz,

I wonder where the flowers is...

right here!

*smiling*

I don't know if there's a flower that makes me smile more than a crocus. It's such a lovely burst of colour after a whole lot of bland.

*sigh of contentment*

~compliments of the crocuses in my backyard~

Happy Birthday to me...

and I'm having a grand old time:

although one could possibly assume that I have no idea what's going on, since I'm holding the sign upside-down, which might just indicate that I don't know how to read and therefore don't have a clue... but is smiling nonetheless.

joking!

I had a super birthday on Monday. It was my first one away from my family, and the first one I've celebrated out of the country to boot! It had it's rough moments - opening the cards from home brought tears to my eyes - but I still had a lovely day.

The weather co-operated quite nicely. I saw a beautiful sunrise as I was getting ready for work, and then it rained all day long. That might not seem like co-operation to you, but when you check out the picture below, you'll understand why.

Some of my friends came over for Kaffee und Kuchen and we sat in the sunroom - where the sound of the raindrops hitting the glass made my heart smile. I do believe that's one of my favourite sounds in the world.

I received some wonderful gifts - and the packaging was pretty spiffy as well. I even decided to incorporate some of it into my wardrobe (cheers to you Kristi!)

The postal service even hopped on board the birthday train and brought me cards from home on my exact birthday! I really enjoyed this one from one of my...sensitive... sisters. :) I laughed and laughed and laughed when I saw it. And there's nothing quite like laughter to make you happy.

It was a super day and I felt lots of love from everyone around me and those across the ocean. Thanks for making my special day absolutely spiff-tastic!

Love,

Sandy

Bobbing along, bobbing along...

the bottom of the beautiful, briiiiiny sea...

and briny it certainly was. On Saturday my friends and I headed over to the...erm, lovely... town of Soltau for a day at the Therme Spa. I'm only joking, Soltau was actually quite nice, but the weather was awful and I made the mistake of wearing a t-shirt when it was not even close to being warm enough for that. And it's hard to really like a place when you're freezing your royal tail off.

However, the Therme Spa more than made up for any chilly-ness I experience. It was 3 hours of straight up relaxation. Brilliant.

Beth, Ian and Megan

The complex here is huge - they've got indoor swimming pools, outdoor swimming pools, a sauna garden, fitness centre, salt pools, waterslide, jumping platforms, massage lounge, cafe, bar... it just goes on and on... And we more than made the most of it!

Or at least, we made the most of the salt pools. Except for a brief jaunt over to the jumping towers (where the 5m tower was closed :( and I had to make to with the 3m one) we spent most of the day soaking in the salt. It was soooo relaxing - minus the part where you went underwater and your eyes burned when you re-opened them. They had a big pool that was 36 degrees, a hot tub, a hot bubbly tub, an indoor/outdoor pool and a steam room. I'm pretty sure I maxed out my yearly salt allowance in less than 3 hours.

The steam room was my favourite - it's like you were on the seaside and in a rainforest at the same time. Super super humid and steamy (makes sense... it is called a steam room after all) and salty too. Fantastic for the respiratory system.

Once we got out of the pools and washed all the salt off we headed over to the local Brauhaus - aka brewery :). That was quite possibly the best decision of the day because I was UNBELIEVABLY dehydrated from hanging out in a warm salt pool for 3 hours. So the thought of a nice cold beer was absolutely exquisite. Plus the food was delicious!

Megan and Beth looking all excited to pose for a picture...

while really thinking: "get it over with... I'm dying of thirst!!"

Myself and Ian looking mightily refreshed - our picture was taken after the first sip!

Here's a nice shot of the... um... machines where they make beer:

But beer and schnitzel wasn't nearly enough to satisfy the demands of the stomach after a day at the spa. Next stop: ice cream!!

Nothing like a large portion of sugar to counteract the healing effects of the spa.

Then I stopped a fight:

sorta...

And after this oh-so-strenuous day of floating in a salt pool, melting in a steam room, devouring schnitzel, savouring beer and topping it all off with ice cream - I slept like a log. Zzzz

I'm still not sure that I've totally recovered...

Cheers,

Sandy